France wants to make the implementation of the electric vehicle more bearable. Even if that happens by pulling public coffers. The French Executive aspires to start up in 2023 the gears of one of Emmanuel Macron’s most popular campaign promises, known as “social leasing”, basically a program that allows electric vehicles to be rented for 100 euros a month.
His goal: that the first reservations can arrive as early as 2023.
Make it easier for the electric car. That is basically the objective of France, which wants to solve one of the big problems for the implementation of electric mobility: the high cost of its vehicles. The proposal is not entirely new. A year ago, in the middle of the presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron revealed what he was selling as one of his “flag measures”.
The idea is to offer a social rental that —detailing Macron’s team at the time— allow families to access an electric car from around 100 euros per month. The price is close to already offer Dacia, Renault or Fiat in the leasing of certain models, such as the Spring, Zoe or 500e, which offer a range according to the WLTP cycle of between 230 and 320 kilometres.
From rhetoric to facts. The second round of the French presidential elections was held almost a year ago, end of April 2022. Since then, the Macron Executive has put the issue back on the table on several occasions. In August, the delegate minister for public accounts, Gabriel Attal, did so, stressing the objective of the measure: “to establish leasing mechanisms to accompany the most modest households”, those for whom it could cost the most to switch to electric cars, that have in the price one of their great barriers.
As? France would bet on a leasing for which the user would pay the first 100 euros of the monthly fee and the State would assume the remaining amount. The measure would also contemplate a final purchase option. Of course, relevant practical issues remained to be specified, such as the requirements that households must meet to access the program or its implementation schedule.
Shaping the fine print. Now it has been another senior government official, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, who has spoken. And he has done it, first, to guarantee that “the promise will be fulfilled”; and second, to provide some more brushstrokes on how the measure will be applied. Although much of the fine print is still missing, he did specify to Franceinfo that the objective is for the first effective reservations to be made before the end of 2023.
“We are looking at the income levels that allow it to be entitled to it and to what extent it could be preserved for the European industry,” slipped bechu. What he did specify is that the rules will be established by the end of the year, when it will be possible to make vehicle reservations. “We will set up the system so we can start reserving our electric car,” he guaranteed.
With an eye on the local industry. Another of the ideas that Bechu has left is that the measure will be considered in such a way that it supports manufacturers from the old continent. “We want it to benefit the European industry”, settled: “The US, under the protection of the fight against global warming and inflation, has voted a plan of several hundred billion that allows them to subsidize their industry […]. We need to use the transition as a way to support our industry.”
The Executive has also promised to reinforce its map of charging stations and advances that 100,000 will soon be reached in public spaces. “The next challenge is very fast charging stations, which is happening on highways and main roads,” detailed the leader French.
The backdrop, crucial. It is not the first policy that seeks to facilitate the implementation of the electric vehicle in France, which has already tried to promote it even with direct aid up to 6,000 euros for models of less than 47,000 euros and 2,000 in the case of those that cost less than 60,000.
Now the challenge is to guarantee “an affordable offer”, crucial if two factors are taken into account: first, Europe’s objective of being emission neutral of CO2 in 2050; second, and largely related to the previous one, the ban on the sale of combustion vehicles in just over a decade, starting in 2035.
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